how do y'all feel about this?

I am currently completing a book called FANZINES (Thames & Hudson) and have included the cover of List / Goodbye, Baltimore, no. 12 (fall 2008), fully credited in the book.

My book looks at the history of fanzines in a general overview of UK and USA-based self-publishing. As a good example of an interesting contemporary personal zine it would be remiss not to include it in any history of fanzines. The book is due out in September and I hope this will establish the importance of this form of self-publishing.

I do hope this is okay.Yours sincerely,Prof Teal TriggsUniversity of the Arts London"

Poor form right? I know a lot of zinesters don't care about their things being reproduced or used, and I actually don't mind at all for it to be included, but it seems like asking ahead of time would be the right thing to do, right? Especially for a book?

Replies to This Discussion

Sending a letter to the publisher or distributor can have the book held and changed, since this is a pretty cut and dried legal matter (if you care to pursue it). Even if he's self publishing, the distributor would not be keen on doing anything with the book if there's a legal claim against it. You do still have options.

So hey, anyone who's keeping track of this heard about the dust-up around Cook's Source magazine? It's the same situation: for-profit magazine lifts article from blog, doesn't even tell writer, then when she finds out, says writer should be grateful that CS stole the article because it's exposure and the editor made a number of (unwanted, un-known-about) edits to the article anyway. Of course, we've got some of the "you should be grateful they stole!" people right here in our own community.....

"It's very clear from her writing that she is interested in the "look" of zines as a graphic designer and seems to care very little about the content"

Ain't that the truth! I had a quick flick through the book at the ICA bookshop. I think it was £20. The only cool thing about it was to see some friends' zines in it but now i'm going to contact them to see if they know they are in it. I definitely would not pay £20 for that.

Oh, I totally agree that it is unprofessional, illegal, and the actions of a complete asshole. But some people here seem to think that "exposure" excuses blatant acts of plagiarism and copyright infringement. Okay, maybe only two people.

People who have seen the book: are there any shots of the interiors of the zines or just the covers?

i received my contributors copy in the mail on friday. just flipping through and seeing the covers of some friends or important zines to me was neat. but that's the highest note i can give this book. i believe someone already said this, but is indeed just a publication of her zine collection laid out in a pretty way. what a disappointment in so many ways.

You're doing an amazing job with this Amber! While I wasn't personally affected by this, I support these efforts 100% due to how much this has upset my friends such as you, and the zine community. If there's anything you want my help for in regards to this, let me know.

Amber / Culture Slut said:

For those who requested it, a list of every zine pictured in the book has finally been added to the website. If your zine was featured, you are entitled to receive a free contributor's copy from the publisher.

Thanks for this, now I'm after my free copy! I will say, since the book came out, at least in the UK, there seems to be a bit of a buzz about zines going on. I've been contacted by two other researchers for interviews from the UK, don't know if anyone else has.

Amber / Culture Slut said:

For those who requested it, a list of every zine pictured in the book has finally been added to the website. If your zine was featured, you are entitled to receive a free contributor's copy from the publisher.

is that because of the book though or just coincidental to its release? The "zine scene" in the UK is fairly healthy at the moment with plenty of new zine fairs popping up.

Dan 10things said:

Thanks for this, now I'm after my free copy! I will say, since the book came out, at least in the UK, there seems to be a bit of a buzz about zines going on. I've been contacted by two other researchers for interviews from the UK, don't know if anyone else has.

Amber / Culture Slut said:

For those who requested it, a list of every zine pictured in the book has finally been added to the website. If your zine was featured, you are entitled to receive a free contributor's copy from the publisher.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I've been keeping up with this issue a little bit. I hadn't actually seen the book until this weekend, when I found it at a local bookstore.

Strangely, the first page I flipped to had the cover of Creep #10 on it -- my boyfriend's college friend's zine he did when he was a teenager/early 20's that he showed to us when we were visiting him in Olympia. Of course, no credit to him in the book, and there's no way in hell that he knew about it.

I'm really bummed out that Triggs handled things the way she did. It's such a violation of so many things. It also bothers me that these tomes about riot grrrl and zines, etc. are coming out now like these things are totally dead and in the past. Also, a selfish bummer -- that book is printed really nicely, and had Triggs not been such an idiot, I totally would have bought it.

Probably both. I asked the last researcher though and she named Teal's new book specifically. I personally have no problem of with a cover or page or two of my zine being featured in a prominent new book about zines, the more hype the better! I'm publishing my first new issue in years in 2011 and I want people to order the damn thing. But my zines have never been for a small or limited audience, I always want as many readers and orders as possible. My zine has been written about or pictured quite a few times without the author telling me they were going to cover it, that seems pretty par for the course. It happened with the book "Loser" and just happened with Eric from the New Bomb Turk's new book on garage punk, I am always happy for the shout out. I'm slightly puzzled by people's expectations (that an author doing a history or scene book covering a ton of stuff would notify everyone they cover) or their getting pissed off about copyright (which featuring a cover or page of doesn't violate, plus zines violate copyright all the time). I guess I'm the kind of person that's always excited to have my zine featured, pictured or written about. I think in the '80s and '90s we had a pretty different attitude towards this stuff. Many of the zine books that came out in those times didn't notify the zines ahead of time and no one really complained about it. It just goes to show how attitudes in the zine community change over time.

Stephanos said:

is that because of the book though or just coincidental to its release? The "zine scene" in the UK is fairly healthy at the moment with plenty of new zine fairs popping up.